Hearst and Harmsworth

Our first focused (and I use the term lightly) lecture of the second year was a look at world and newspaper history of the early 20th century. More specifically, it was a look at William Randolph Hearst and Alfred Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe). Probably the most influential media-men of the time.

Hearst, we’ll think of him as the American media mogul, was essentially the inventor of the tabloid newspaper. The rising literacy rates of the time meant more of the working class could read, but this by no means meant there were up to ploughing their way through the walls of text that made up most broadsheets (hell, I’m supposedly well educated and I can barely stomach reading much of the telegraph, and I’m pretty sure the FT is all just freemason code…). As a result, he changed the formats of all of his papers, a hefty chunk of front pages, and entire papers were covered in striking, shocking and generally eye-catching pictures. The motto of the time was sensationalism, or ‘yellow journalism’ fierce battles were raging between various papers (on the pages of course, remember, the pen is mightier than the sword), each trying to outdo the others. Hearst’s stories could become unbelievable, sometimes literally. He also went about headhunting writers from other papers, in order to form his own crack squad.